Designing my first Office: Cue Marketing

Over the summer of ’17 I was lucky enough to secure myself an internship with Cue Marketing (May – September), a marketing company based in Manchester, Spinningfields. The company consists of a  team of creatives, digital marketing specialists, technologists, PR consultants and business specialists. Specialising in leisure, property, retail and hospitality, CUE Marketing works with many different businesses in the North West and across the UK.

(Left to right: Managing Director Melissa, Myself, Marketing manager Emma). On site at the development of the Cue Marketing Offices designed by  myself.

My job title was ‘Marketing Assistant’, throughout my time here my role involved:

• Ordering company magazines, general office stationary or client requirements
• Keeping up with award ceremonies that the agency and clients can enter
• Updating the databases for all clients
• General office and administration tasks where necessary
• General monitoring of industry news and general news and how we can pick up on anything for marketing
• Monthly list of events to attend – including CIM, networking events and trade shows
• Updating company websites – regularly reviewing that information is up to date and fresh across all client websites including Cue Marketing
• Updating the social calendar
• Whats going on in Manchester and surrounding areas to Spinningfield’s
• Working closely with interior design team (Hala) at Manchester Hall
• Working on new designs for the new Cue Office

(The blank canvas before my designs were installed).

Through this internship I learnt the importance of working closely with the client, as well as builders, engineers and contractors. I worked with R and M Developments to get all interior fittings installed, this required me to produce and send over floor plans to the builders in order to keep the development moving forward.

I cannot deny that this was a very hard job, as every small detail counted within the plans, and everything from materials to measurements of the interior glass partitions had a huge impact on every design element following this. It was important for me to understand what the Cue Marketing team wanted within the new office, from working with the team everyday it was easy to understand how everybody worked. I had to consider the importance of collaboration and communication within the workplace, the team of creatives would need a space where they can brainstorm and come up with new ideas for clients etc. Whilst the managers would need the opportunity to break away from the workspace and have their own offices to meet with clients.

It reminded me of the reality of interior design, and that working as an interior designer in the real world is much different than studying the subject at university. With university projects, we are urged to be creative and not think within budgets and reality. This is purely so our tutors can see what we are capable of and how unique and imaginative our minds are. Initially, when I started to work on the office designs I did go into it with this student mindset, but this soon changed as budgets were set.

Whilst trying to ensure that the office was completed before I left to finish my final year at Sheffield Hallam University, planning the grand opening of Manchester Hall was also at the top of Cue’s priorities. As one of our top clients, it was essential that we made sure that the grand opening was still good to go on schedule. For this, acts and entertainment had to be organised and booked, invitations to be sent, and not to forget keeping up to date with their social media to ensure the grand opening was well marketed.

Unfortunately, the office wasn’t finished before I headed off back to university, but I completed an InDesign document which Cue can refer to to complete the office. I am currently working remotely to help with any queries or help that Cue need in regards to the design, and I hope to stay in touch with the company and all of the great people I met in the future.

Visit the link below to see my Cue Marketing office portfolio:

Homeless-ness and the bear pit: 3rd Year Project

Happy Sunday guys! I’m back blogging after an amazing summer, ready to keep you up to date with the technicalities of third year and the height of the jump from second year. This is the year that counts! but I am not going to put too much pressure on myself.. as health and happiness comes first no matter what. So here is what I’ve been up to for the past couple of weeks.

For this module, each student had the choice of three briefs’. These were, homeless-ness, fine dining, and storytelling. Each brief had different initial requirements. After reading through all three briefs I decided I was going to challenge myself and change what I would normally go for previously, I chose Homeless-ness.

Secondly, we chose from four different sites, Studio 557, The Chapel, 5 Fitzalan Square, or the Bear pit within the Botanical Gardens. I decided to choose the Bear pit, as I remember stumbling across the structure whilst walking through the Botanical Gardens so I want to take this opportunity to find out even more about it.

The Location: The Bear Pit

Map created on Digimaps.

The bear pit is located within Sheffields’ botanical gardens, situated off Ecclesall Road. The gardens were designed by Robert Marnock and first opened in 1836. The most notable features within the garden are the grade II listed glass pavillions, the main gateway, the south entrance, and the bear pit. The bear pit only has one entrance, however by accessing the pit from Brocco Bank or Botanical Road, the public can take a path which gives access to the top of the bear pit. In history, this would be a popular route for people to come and see the two bears without having to take the long route from the main entrance (Thompson Road).

In 1855 Sir Henry Hunloke presented two brown bears to the gardens, although little is known about this.  The bear pit was fully repaired during the restoration of the gardens. The old railings have been replaced with more elegant ones to match the railings surroundings.

Grilles have been re-instated and can be pulled across the entrance to the pit, and also across the two side dens, which once housed the two bears. The grilles can be locked, thereby keeping things either in or out.

In January 2005 a mild steel sculpture of a bear (2.4m high) was installed to remind people of the history. The bear was originally a pale silver grey colour, but the sculptor, David Mayne, allowed the metal to rust naturally.

The Brief: Homeless-ness

The concept of home is a broader notion than that of a physical building. It is a place where we feel safe and which embodies our very being, somewhere that we live out the most basic elements of our life such as cooking, eating sleeping and washing, and a point from which we orientate and position ourselves within the wider world.

This project will aim to explore the territory between having a home and being street homeless.

Essential / Social / Security

Objective 1

Pack your bag of essentials –

You are required to pack a bag of essentials for an undetermined length of time.
Be selective and critical to the essentials that you require as you will need to carry and take these items with you at all times.

You must carefully record and draw your bag in plan and section.
The items need to have a speci cation – for example and series of bullet points to describe each item and why you’ve pack it.

You are free to use any method of recording from free hand drawings / time lapse
photography / measurements of your bag / items / understanding the hierarchy of your possessions will help with designing your spatial requirements.

Design and model a space around your belongings – Explore in plan and section the relationship of your items and the spatial requirements to design a room.

It is critical that you are analytical of observations and re ective in the way to develop your initial moves. Your proposals should be developed to a high standard of resolution.

 

My Bag of Essentials

I have chosen these items as I believe they would be essential for myself and many people to be able to survive on the street. I have based my items on surviving a night within the bear pit, doing this will further inform my design decisions of what facilities I will install within the bear pit, and what the user would need.

Objective 2

You are required to build a model of you chosen existing building you can use card or any medium you see t to represent your existing building.

Although this model didn’t come out as well as I would have hoped, I enjoyed photographing the model within the natural surroundings to portray how the bear pit is hidden within the landscape. I built the model out of clay onto a cork board, decorating it with fake grass and leaves. I could have gone into more detail when creating the model but working with clay was harder than I anticipated, and also making the model was just to inform me of how the bear pit is constructed. By understanding the construction I can then be more confident going forward with my design concept, and I will understand what will and will not work.

For the third and final part of my initial research, I must carry out a reasonable amount of site analysis in order to inform my design decisions. These things can include:

• Street Patterns
• Movement around the site
• Public and Private spaces
• The structure
• The history
• symmetry
• light quality
• views
• sketches from the site
• charts and tables
• sun angles

…. and anything else which will help me with my project.